"Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park:
Mary Crawford is the character all men fall in love with. Vivacious, worldly, musical, funny and kind, she is the ultimate femme fatale. Even the dull parson Edmund Bertram falls for her charms, simultaneously attracted and repelled by her particular brand of sexy charisma. She’s a wonderful actress and plays the harp like an angel. She makes the filthiest joke in Austen when she makes a pun about sodomy in the navy, concerning rear and vice admirals: 'Of rears and vices I saw enough. Now do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.'"
Are they kidding? They're kidding. Right?
Apparently not. Never understood how anyone could actually think she was the heroine.
To be expounded upon.
2 comments:
I've never understood Mary Crawford's popularity. It angers me when she gets compared to Elizabeth Bennet. Yes they're both witty and beautiful but that's all they have in common! Mary tries to persuade Edmund not to be a clergyman because she doesn't consider it to be a good enough profession for her. She doesn't seem to consider Maria's adulterous affair with Henry wrong at all, she only seems upset that they weren't discreet about it and got found out. And Mary actually expresses her hope that Tom Bertram will die so Edmund can inherit the family fortune! Can anyone imagine Elizabeth Bennet saying these things?!
BUT this article doesn't bother me too much actually because it says great Jane Austen "characters" and not "heroines". There are lots of characters that I love purely because I find them interesting, I don't necessarily like them! Although this writer clearly likes Mary. Hmm... maybe it does annoy me after all!
For all those reasons you have mentioned and even more, I think Mary is one of the worst women in the entire Austen cannon (though there are definitely close matches.) When people compare her to Lizzie they completely miss the point to Mary's character, and also indicate a misunderstanding of Lizzie, too, which is just a crying shame.
Totally agree, some of the best characters are the ones that get under our skin, particularly Jane Austen characters in my case!
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